Is There Integrity in the CME Process?

The Association is currently planning the 2005 Annual Scientific Meeting, to be held in Orlando, Florida, in August. Considering the buzz and excitement generated by the 2004 meeting in Boston, this meeting must be attended by all podiatric physicians who want to enjoy the largest, best, and most exciting meeting offered in the world of podiatry. Remember the dates, August 4 to 7, and remember the location, the Orlando World Center Marriott. Make your plans now.

As part of this planning process, the Annual Meeting Committee, under the direction of Trustee Frank A. Spinosa, DPM, is carefully reviewing guidelines recently released by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME). The guidelines were revised in September 2004 and should be read by anyone planning an upcoming CME meeting. They are posted at the ACCME Web site at http://www.accme.org.

I would like to call your attention to several issues that APMA has always considered critical to the integrity of a CME program, and we encourage meeting planners, speakers, corporate sponsors, and attendees to carefully review these items. I found the issue of commercial support to be of great interest.

We have now entered an era in which increasing corporate support exists for our programs. This support has allowed APMA to reduce its meeting registration fee for members to the historic low of $69. At the same time, we cannot let these corporate dollars affect the validity of the scientific information we present.

Here are a few points to consider:

• Any individual who is in a position to control the content of an educational activity must disclose all current or previous financial relationships with any meeting sponsor that may have existed during the past 12 months.
• The group organizing the meeting must control the flow of corporate dollars so that the speakers and content are not controlled by the source of the funding.
• Written agreements must exist between the meeting organizers and the corporate sponsors concerning the extent and limitations of their product promotion.
• All expenses and honoraria to speakers must be paid by the organizers and not by the corporate sponsors.
• If speakers refer to trade names of a certain product, the use of generic terms should also be used, and more than one drug or modality should be mentioned.
• Prior to the start of the talk, the speaker must reveal to the audience any financial relationship he or she may have regarding the presentation.
• Advertising of any kind during a presentation or workshop is prohibited.
• Slides, handouts, and abstracts should not contain any advertising, trade names, or product-group messages. Even a corporate logo on a slide is prohibited.

I know that APMA is committed to these principles and will develop the necessary guidelines. Our members will be presented unbiased information that is not influenced by our corporate donations, yet our generous sponsors will have the largest and most influential venue in podiatric medicine and surgery to showcase their products and services.

These concepts will preserve the integrity of your CME credits, and the APMA Annual Scientific Meeting is once again leading the way. I urge every APMA member to advocate that these principles be followed at every meeting they attend. We are grateful for the benefits provided by our corporate friends, but the education we receive needs to be pure and unbiased.

Again, come to Orlando in August 2005 to enjoy the best meeting our profession has to offer.